Build Massive Shoulders By Hitting Them From Every Angle

One of the most masculine features a man can possess on his physique, are capped shoulders to help in giving that 3d look. The truth is some men are pre-dispositioned with narrower shoulders and smaller muscle structure, and some men naturally have larger shoulders, with noting this, all men can build better shoulders.

The muscle bellies that comprise the deltoid group are split into three major areas –

1) The anterior (front) deltoid

2) The medial (side) deltoid

3) The posterior (rear) deltoid.

A balance across the 3 deltoids will help to increase strength, proportions and help to really emphasises your V-taper by broadening your upper body.

The most common problems many people have is they neglect the training of the front and the rear, thinking that they will get enough of a workout on chest and back day, which isn’t the best approach to complete shoulders.

Shoulder Training |

Common Mistakes

The three biggest mistakes I see most guys make when building training shoulders are:

1) Not using enough variation

I see people come to the gym and do the same workout week in week out. Apart from being very boring, the human body is very adaptive and will become accustomed to a training method very quickly. This is why even in powerlifting there are phased approaches. The body needs to be shocked into growth and variation in movement which is a great way to do just that.

2) Neglecting rear deltoids

By focusing on so much press they are either too tired at the end of the session to do rear Delt work or put in a half arsed effort. This can lead to an over development of your chest and front deltoids and an underdeveloped back and rear deltoids which will pull yourshoulders forward (not the look you want).

3) Lifting for the sake of lifting

This is by far the most common mistake, each press, raise or basically any movement needs to have a thought behind it.

“Why am I lifting this weight?”

“Is my form correct?”

“What area am I trying to focus on during the movement?”

“Ensuring there is a contraction on the muscle?”

“Is my tempo right?”

…Which may lead to injury in many cases

There is a lot to think about not just moving the object from A to B, if you’re not doing any of the things I’ve listed, this is more than likely to be the biggest stumbling block in the gym and building muscle for any muscle group.

The Safe Way To Build Lean, Muscular Delts

The Answer?

✓ Higher volume

✓ Lots of time under tension and sueezing through contraction points.

✓ But the big tip is variety, hitting them at all angles.

Typically we start a shoulder workout with heavy compound pressing movement, like standing or seated military presses, Arnold presses, or machine presses. Since it’s a compound movement, most people attack this first exercise trying to lift as heavy as possible as they are fresh, in most cases this is ego lifting and bound to lead to an injury.

So after you’ve left your ego at the front of the gym, instead of loading up the weight, think about decreasing the weight, up the volume and concentrate on every rep, ensure your tempo and form are on point.

You’ll find this just as hard, if not harder then trying for the big lifts, not to mention you’ll reap the rewards in the long run with muscle & joint longevity long after your gains.